Improved apparatus for drying sugar and cooling charcoal



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Letters Patent No. 90,549, dated ZlIay 25, 18g),

IMPROVED APPARATUS. FOR DRYINGj SUGAR AND COOLING CHARCOAL. &c.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making pari: of the same.

To all whom it may concern Beit known that I, Gus'rAvUs A. JASPER, an alien, now residing in Charlesto'wm'in the State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Apparatus for Drying Sugar and Cooling Charcoal; and I do hereby declare the following to hea full andv correct description of the same, reference being had to the-.accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a vertical section of my apparatus.

Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal section ofthe drying, or cooling-cylinder, and parts attached to it.

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section of the cylinder, showing the interior of the cylinder through the upper head, which is removed.

The nature of my invention consists in organizing and setting up au apparatus in which sugar-and similar articles may be dried and charcoal and similar articles cooled, by the action of a current of air -upon the arti'cies to be dried or'coole'd."

By my invention, a higher grade of sugar can be produced than by any drying-apparatus hitherto devised, and by it charcoal can be cooled with a great saving of time and labor.

I will rst speak of my invention as applied to drying sugar'.

rFhere have been in use hitherto many contrivances for drying sugar. `That which l think the best, and have myself used, consists of a steam-box, provided with several sets of rakes, which are employed in drawing the sugar forward from the end ofthe box at which it is introduced to the end at which it is discharged. But either from imperfections in the heated surface over which the sugar is drawn, or from imperfections in the teeth ofthe rakes, many of the crystals are burned, and colored yellow or brown. These co1- cred crystals cannot be separated from the other crystals, and the result of the drying is a sugarv very perceptibly colored as compared with sugar dried by my present invention. Sometimes, too, the sugar is not wholly dried. Some of it, lodging in the hollows of the imperfect heated surface, prevents sugar, passing over sugar so lodged, from receiving the propel' degree oi heat. Again the teeth of the rakes break and wear away the crystals, and render them less transparent than they are when formed, thus injuring the quality of the sugar.

Sugar has also been dried by introducing hot air into a chamberwithin whiclrthere are several circular horizontal plates, parallel to each other, and attached to anupright shaft, which passes through the centres of the plates, and upon which they rotate. The sugar is placed uponA the upper plate, and after making one revolution, is brought against a scraper, which throws it through an openingin the plate down upon the next plate, where it remains for another revelution, and so on until itis discharged from the charnbr. But, unless this apparatusis built to a very great height, it will not dry sugar, and even then, as there is .no draught to carry off the hot air as it becomes saturated with moisture from the sugar, the confined air, before it extracts all the moisture, becomes heated to such a degree as to insure the sugar.

In this apparatus, too, the sugar is subjected, to a' grinding-operation bythe Scrapers, and many of the crystals are worn or broken. l

The use of my apparatus is attended with none of these diiiculties.

I proceed to describe its construction, and operation. f

My apparatus can be used to the greatest advantage by erecting it so as to occupy a portion of three separate stories of the refinery.

lt is thus represented in the drawings, wherei,

A is a rotary cylinder, about twenty feet in-le'ugth and four feet in diameter, and made of wood, lined with galvanized sheet-iron orvcopper.

It is placed in the second story of the refinery, and mounted upon four friction-rollers C, two near each end, having their axes parallel to the axis of the cylinder.

The friction-rollers are mounted upon blocks B B', the block B being considerably higher than the block B', so that one end of the cylinder may be more elevated than the other, vas shown in'the drawing.

The rollers are doubly hanged.

The cylinder has two metal rings a a, one near each end, which fit loosely between the'flanges of the friction-rollers.

The'heads of the cylinder D D do not revolve, but each head is provided with a ilange, or rhn, the flange of the head D iitting closely within the revolving drying-cylinder, and the flange ofthe head D fitting closely without, as shown.

E is a metallic hot-air chest in the story below the drying-cylinder A, within which there is a coil of steam-pipe, entering at b and coming out at b'.

These pipes have valves for regulating the steam.

The chest E is supplied with fresh air by the pipe, or cold-air box c, opening from the bottom of the chest to the outside of the. building.

rlhis cold-air box has also a valve not shown.

F is a hot-air pipe leading from the topof the hotair chest to the cylinder, through the upper part of the stationary head D', as shown.

G is a tunnel, through which the sugar, after drying, falls into the sifting-machine, in the story below.

rlhe mouth of the tunnel iits closely to the lower half of the head D, which is cut away to allow the free egressgof the sugar, as shown at g in iig. 3.

H is an air-pipe, or flue leading from the upper part ofthe drying-cylinder throughthe upper part of the stationary vhead D,.to the story of the refinery above the cylinderor"to the open air.

A'lhe flue H is provided with a fan, J, which con-l sists of several radial plates attachedto a shaft, c, ro-

, tating in journals'f.

The plates ofthe fan are so placed in the mouth of the flue, that as they rotate, they create a strongA draught through the flue, and so through the dryingt cylinder.

The shaft c may be rotated by a fixed pulley, fi, connecting, by means of a belt, hf, with a h'xed pulley on the main shaft, as shown in the drawings, or the belt ing, the combined action of which prevents the sugar from bridging over lin the tunnel, orfroin falling in such masses as to clog up the narrower passages.l

The rotary cutter L has four series of knives, or fingers, attached spirally to a shaft,-,l, the fingers of each series being about four inches'apart.

The rollers M M are about four inches apart, and are lso' placed below the rotary cutter that the lingers, as they revolve, stir up the mass of ysugar which lies upon and between the rollers.

Gare Ymust be taken that the rollers are suiiieiently large not to allow sugar to fall in large masses' between the outside of each and the side of the tunnel.

The shaft l, to which the lingers are attached, is rotatedby a fixed pulley, m, connected, by a belt, fn, with a pulley on the main shaft.

Motion is given to the rollers M`M by a` belt, connecting a fixed pulley onshaftl with one of them, the

two rollers being connected by another belt, so that they revolve towards eachl other, and with equal velocity. l v

The fixed pulley upon shaft l, last spoken of, is of such diameterl that the rotary cutter revolves with more than double the velocity of the rollers M M.

The rotary cutter and the rollers may be so placed,

in reference to each other, that the axis of the shaft Z,

shall be parallel with the axes of the rollers, as shown in the drawing, or they may be so placed that the axis of shaft l shall be at right angles with the axes of I the rollers.

O is a grooved metallic ring firmly attached to the cylinder, as shown.

A belt, o, passingover the ring and around a fixed pulley on the main shaft, gives the required rotary motion to the cylinder. Y The inner surface of the drying-cylinder is provided with shelves, or scoops s s, of galvanizedI iron or cop-v per, as shown in the drawings. In this respect, this part of the apparatus resembles rotary cylinders now in use forwashing charcoal. I break these shelves up into short lengths, as shown, for convenience in putting them in. lhey are arranged, in reference to each other, like steps, so that sugarfalling cannot remain on the inner surface of the. cylinder for any length of time without being taken by ashelt' `and again carried up. vThe shelves are put in at such an angle with the surface lof the cylinder that they retain the sugar until they come ynear the top, in the revolution of the'cylinder. The operation of my apparatus derstood. i, A current of hot air from the chest E passes conwiu te readily unstantly through the rotary cylinder, entering bythe pipe F, and making its exit by the fluel H.

The draught of the air through the cylinder is greatly increased hy the action of the-fan J. Instead chimney, to increase the draught.

Afterthe cylinder has been put in motion, with the current of hot air passing through it, the moist sugar is emptied into the mouth oi' the tunnel K, in the third story.

Any tendency to clog up or bridge over the tunnel is prevented, as before shown, by the action of the rotary cutter L and rollers M M, and the sugar falls to the story helow,fentering the drying-cylinder through the lower part of the stationary head D.

The sugar entering thccylinderis immediately taken bythe shelf s, which happens to beinearest, and cai'- ried up by the revolutionof the cylinder until the position of the shelf is such that it can no longer support it, when it falls to the-bottom of the cylinder, to be carried up by another shelf, the operation being repeated until the sugar reaches the further end of the cylinder, and falls, through the tunnel G, into the sifting-machine, in the rststory of the building. l

AThe elevation of the-head D, above the head D', causes the sugar, every time it leaves a shelf, to fall forward a little, and it is taken up by a shelf nearer the further end of the cylinder than the shelf by which/it was last taken up. y

As sugar constantly enters the upper endof the cylinder, it is evident that there will he a continual rai-n of sugar all through the cylinder.

The fall of the sugar tends to separate the crystals from each other, and the current of .hot air acting upon each crystal separately, dries it thoroughly.

In drying sugar, and similar articles, by my apparatus, it is notalways necessary that the air passing' into .the cylinder, through what AI have called the -hotair pipe, should be heated. The Vcondition ot the atmosphere is frequently such that a current of air introduced directly from out of doors will suciently dry the sugar while passing through the cylinder. If the cylinder is built of a greater length, this willuhappen. still more frequently;

By my apparatus none of the crystals of the sugar are turned or colored; norare the crystals broken or them, as in apparatus previously described. 4lhe only wear upon the' crystals comes from their falling against the infinitely ne dust arising therefrom is carried o leave-the drying-apparatus less worn and` more transn parent than they'are-to be found when dried by any apparatus-or process hitherto devised for practically dryingsugar in large quantities.

When my apparatus is intended to be employed for cooling charcoal, I build the cylinder and the tunnels o'f boiler-iron. The rotary cutter and the' rollers are not needed in the tunnel by whiehthe charcoal is introducedinto the cylinder, and are omitted, as is also the steam-chest E.

The operation is as follows: The hot charcoal, having beenhoisted to the story above the cylinder, in thewagons in which it was taken through the cylinder, and issues by the tunnel G, in the manner previously shown when describing the op# eration of drying sugar. The strong draught of lcold 'and sufciently cools the charcoal. The draught also carries off all the dust, and does away with much'y of the labor of sifting and cleaning the charcoal.

of using the fan, the iiue might be turned into a tall worn away by any instrument rubbing or grinding.

eachother, or against the surface ofthe cylinder, and

through the flue by the strong draught. The crystals The pipe F communicates directly with the open air.

from the furnace, is discharged from the wagons di-r rectly into the tunnel K.; thence it passes, into and air acts upon the grains as they fall from the' shelves,

Having thus described my invention, y ers M M wit-h a. tunnel, substantially as described, fol' Vliet I claim, and desire to secure by Letters lzitthe purpose described. ont, isvThe above specification of my said invention signed 1. The rotary cylinder A, provided with means for and witnessed :it Boston, this 10th day of April, A. 1). carrying zr current of :rir through it, substantially iis 1869.

described, for the purpose of drying,r the sugar and GUTAVUS A. JASPER. like articles, mld cooling the charcoal and like articles, fitnessesz by the action of the nir. W. W. SWAN,

2. The combination ofthe rotary cutter L a11droll- GHAS. P. GGRELY. 

